1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to billboard, and, more particularly, dynamically-controlled display of information on billboards.
2. Related Art
Billboards are a widely used way to present advertising, public service announcements and the like. One of the most common types of billboards is a large board mounted high alongside a road and having a printed advertisement pasted to the surface of the board. Limitations of this relatively static arrangement have led to many improvements over the years. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,828, granted to Lutterbach , et al., Apr. 23, 1996, describes a system in which the conventional board that posts printed material is replaced by a large-screen video display system.
A number of improvements for billboards have been suggested that relate to customized information display depending on traffic situations. U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,116, granted to West, Sep. 22, 1992, describes positioning an advertising display device next to a traffic control signal and coordinating the display device with the traffic control signal to selectively make an advertising message invisible or visible to drivers depending on when the advertising message will or will not adversely distract drivers. West indicates that showing advertising during red lights and stalled traffic may decrease driver boredom and irritability, while avoiding safety issues that would be of concern if an advertising message was otherwise shown next to a traffic signal. U.S. Patent Application 20030001796 filed by Wampler, et al., published on Jan. 2, 2003, describes an advertising billboard system with a display unit that displays one message during commuter rush hours and a different message at other times.
Some of the teachings in the prior art for traffic-dependent customizing of billboard information relate more particularly to vehicle speed or location. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,731,940 granted to Nagendran, May 4, 200, describes a way to determine locations of mobile device users, who may be in moving vehicles, and to send customized information directly to the users or to electronic billboards near their vehicles. Nagendran further suggests that user location information can be aggregated and time sampled to determine traffic density and vehicle speed, which can also be dynamically displayed on billboards. This is presumably proposed by Nagendran as a way to notify drivers who are near a billboard some distance from the location where traffic is congested. U.S. Patent Application 20030233275, filed by Melvin, published on Dec. 18, 2003, describes a system in which vehicle-specific advertising is automatically displayed on billboards in response to characteristics of vehicles that are measured in real-time. Melvin points out that this presents an challenge for computational resources which relates to vehicle speed, because if a vehicle is approaching a billboard at high speed then processing must be fast in order to analyze the vehicle's characteristics and generate or select vehicle-specific information for the billboard message. For example, Melvin states that “allowable processing time” is only about 3.4 seconds for a vehicle traveling toward a billboard at 60 miles per hour that is sensed 100 yards before the billboard is viewable from the vehicle.
While the above references teach useful ways of displaying billboard information that is customized in some manner according to traffic conditions, vehicle characteristics, vehicle locations or vehicle speed, the need still exists for additional improvement in this field.